Artemis Fowl and the Necromancer
by Sir E. Bellum
Summary: Something is bringing back people from Artemis' and Holly's past, but who? and how? Sequel to my story "The Next Adventure"
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: To anyone coming into this story from its prequel, welcome back and sorry for the wait! For anyone starting here, I recommend you read my previous story,_ The Next Adventure_, as this builds off of it.**

**And without further ado, _Artemis Fowl and the Necromancer._**

-Two weeks after the battle of Haven's outskirts-

In an abandoned tunnel, sparks began to snap into existence, as if from nowhere. As they intensified, shockwaves began to shake loose the caked on patches of dust and soot lodged on every surface.

Suddenly, a red vortex opened, depositing a lone elf, with a strange harness attached to his chest. As he fell to his knees, the harness collapsed off, parts of it practically decomposed, as if it had sat dormant for centuries.

The elf looked around, mouth agape. He had been about to speak when he noticed his surroundings. Standing, he ran to the nearby blast door, which hung open, untouched for years. Outside it was a shuttle terminal, just as he'd left it. The elf charged through the terminal and out into the outskirts of Haven. Looking up at the gleaming buildings and the holographic midday sky, he pulled out his communicator, staring for a few more seconds before he gathered enough concentration to use it.

"This is Commander Julius Root, repeat Commander Julius Root. Foaly you have ten seconds to explain what in Frond's name is going on and why you abandoned an active mission with all hands without telling or taking your C.O."

Before he could start counting down, a figure stepped from the shadows and hit him with a burst of light from his hand. Approaching the now-unconscious commander, the figure spoke.

"Welcome back commander, it's been a long time."

-Police Plaza, several minutes later-

Artemis and Holly rushed the ops booth, the latter beating on the door until it opened. Once inside, she stopped, confused at what she saw.

Foaly was not tinkering. He was not typing furiously on his computer, coordinating the lockdown, he wasn't even at his computer. He sat in the middle of the room, staring at his monitor, with a look of shock on his face.

"Foaly! Hello? Lockdown? What's going on?" She said, waving her hand in front of his face. Foaly didn't respond, just pointed at his computer. Artemis walked briskly over to it and began scanning through the records.

"According to this, there was a massive explosion in one of the old tunnels around Haven, this one housed a terminal before the area was abandoned." Artemis continued to speak as he scrolled through the last several minutes of telemetry. "The energy reading is strange though, it doesn't match the explosion, it's too much power."

At this point, Foaly let out a noise between a laugh and a whimper, but made no other sounds. Holly was about to slap him before a sound came in over the speakers.

"This is Commander Julius Root, repeat Commander Julius Root. Foaly you have ten seconds to explain what in Frond's name is going on and why you abandoned an active mission with all hands without telling or taking your C.O."

Holly whipped around, staring open-mouthed at the computer. "What?!" She cried, running to the terminal, "How is that . . ."

Before she could finish, Artemis explained. "It's a recording . . . but not from the mission all those years ago." He played it again, showing the time stamp on the transmission indicated it was only a few minutes old. "This is impossible."

Finally, Foaly spoke. "It happened though. Even came in on the encrypted frequency used by the MK I shimmer suits." He stood up, walking over to the computer and pushing Artemis aside. "Voice recognition confirms the identification of the . . . caller. I even pulled up his old suit profile, it's active again, strong vitals and everything."

There was a scrambling behind them as, for the second time in a month, Holly Short grabbed a set of wings and stormed out of the ops booth.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hey there readers, sorry for the wait. As usual, a combination of procrastination and writers block caused the long release wait. I had to go back and read some of the books and some of my favourite fictions, reacquainting myself with the characters. Lets see what they're up to!**

- Abandoned terminal entrance, near the site of Julius Root's "death" -

Holly touched down in the alleyway where, all those years ago, she had pulled a wounded Chix Verbil behind cover from a goblin assault. It was also the site where, two years later, she had unwittingly activated the explosives that, she thought, had incinerated her mentor.

Despite this memory being very vivid in her mind, she was looking down on the unmistakable form of Commander Julius Root, unconscious in the gutter. In her head, she thought she heard a camera shutter. Then she realized what had just happened.

"Dammit Artemis," She snapped into her microphone, "Could you stop collecting blackmail material for five minutes while we figure out how the commander came back from the dead?"

There was no response, which she took as a grudging acknowledgment. Nervously, she went over and pulled her former commander into a sitting position. His helmet was lying next to him, looking far older than the rest of his equipment, as if it had somehow taken the long way to its current state of sitting in a gutter. As she went to pick it up and check its internal moonometer, a hand shot out and closed on her wrist with an iron grip. She felt the barrel of a gun poking into her side as she froze.

"Who in Frond's name . . . Short?" Root relaxed the hand with the neutrino pistol, realizing who it was bent over him. "Did you shoot me?"

This sparked a wave of sorrow in the new major, as she thought about the fateful day, Koboi's taunts still ringing in her ears. "I'm sorry sir," She said, tears forming in the corners of her eyes, "I had to try for the sweet spot."

"What are you talking about?" Root demanded, causing an abrupt stop to the tears, "Someone knocked me out, it felt like a high power neutrino pulse, but kinda . . . different."

This sparked Holly's interest, and she quickly stood, surveying the area. When no attackers came swarming out of the shadows, she crouched and helped Root to his feet. "Come on sir, it's evidently not safe here." She stepped away so the currents of their wings would not interfere, and began to take off. She only managed a few feet when Root again asked a question.

"Short, where the hell is your uniform?"

- Police Plaza, several minutes later -

Back at the plaza, Holly had quickly changed into her Section 8 jumpsuit, it being the only clean uniform she had on hand, as Root was looked over by several warlocks, eventually deemed completely healthy. She appeared in the infirmary, getting a strange look from the elf at the strange, if at least regulation, uniform. She realized there was going to be a _lot_ of explaining when they got to the ops booth for his debriefing.

She was so distracted thinking about what had happened in the last few years, in fact, that she forgot about the ops booth's most recent occupant (Fowl having deigned to take up a job, as even an exorbitant amount of gold will only go so far). She was roused from her reverie when she heard a yell, and the unmistakable sound of a gun being drawn.

Looking up, she saw Root training his weapon on Artemis, a dangerous look on his face.

"Foaly! Short!" he barked, his hand tightening, "Why is there a mud man in my plaza, and why is that mud man _Artemis Fowl_?" At the end of his life, Root had come to respect the boy, even ordering Holly to save his life, but that didn't mean he liked him.

"Sir! Let me explain!" Holly rushed to stand between her mentor and her lover, spreading her arms to obscure the target further.

She then went into an explanation of what had been going on in the last seven years since his death. Throughout the story, Root alternated between stunned silence and outrage. He started off silent as she told of his death, the silence continuing as he took in more of Koboi's plot. When she got to Artemis and Butler regaining their memories, he started to yell, continuing as she mentioned he was allowed to keep them. He was rapidly regaining his ruddy hue when she told him of Ark Sool's verdicts on her conduct and subsequent takeover of the LEP, and her resignation.

When she told him of her reinstatement into the force, not mentioning her new position in Section 8, he surprised her by guessing it. "It wasn't hard, Short." He said, in a matter-of-fact tone that reminded her a little too much of Artemis, "As commander, I have a high clearance, I know what the black jumpsuit means."

She continued with the debriefing, slightly stunned, and went on to describe the Hybras incident, and the discovery of No. 1. All the red filling his face disappeared as it registered to him what the implications meant.

Now came the hard part. She started into her and Artemis' continued communication, gaining growing disapproving looks from Root, turning into a cold glare directly at Artemis when she got his deception and their jump through time, stopping only when she reached Jayjay, which snapped him into stunned surprise.

Finally, she got to the events of Artemis' madness, finding it hard for her to go over the details in light of her new-found acceptance of her feelings for him. Root seemed more shaken up over the death of Wing Commander Vinyaya. When she got to the reason for her death, Root nearly exploded. It wasn't until she got to Turnball's death that he calmed down. He may have hated his brother, but the loss of his last family member still stung.

At this point, his face began to show more and more disbelief, as Holly described the circumstances involving Koboi and the guardians. When she got to Artemis' death for the sake of the people, it peaked, causing him to stop her.

"If he died," he began, his volume rising, "Then how in Frond's name could he be sitting before me?"

To his credit, Artemis did not betray a single emotion in his response. "I could ask you the same question, commander." he said simply, silencing the Root's protests.

Holly continued, this time getting glares for both her and Foaly at the mention of their illegal resurrection. Holly came to an end just before the events of the last few weeks, not sure how to break Artemis' realization of becoming a magical being to Root. Or their current living situation, for that matter.

Julius had, during the debriefing, sat down on one of Foaly's non-centaurean chairs. He suddenly looked tired, his age showing on his face. Finally, he spoke.

"I think I need to go home, and think about this." he said, before dropping his head and groaning. "I assume my house was sold after my death?"

"Yes," Holly said, "You didn't leave instructions for it in your will, so it was auctioned, the proceeds going towards the academy."

A second later, Holly brightened up. "You can stay at my place, commander!" she pulled out her keyring, cycling to the one for her apartment.

"I've seen your place, Short," Root said, with a confused look, "It's not big enough for one person, let alone two."

"I, um, I'm not . . . currently," Holly was avoiding Julius' face. "I'm not currently living there."

Julius was not unintelligent, and upon hearing this, and seeing the sheepish way Holly was looking at Artemis, put two and two together. He did not like the answer.

"Please, in the name of Frond and his many descendants," He said, facing jumping from calm to beetroot in an instant, "tell me that the mud boy is not living in my city!"

Foaly, silent through all of this, spoke up, taking the key from Holly and guiding the fuming commander out of the ops booth, shooting glares to Holly and Artemis.

"Come on Julius," he said, as he opened the door, "I'll explain on the way, it's a very long story."

The door slid shut. Foaly is very keen on not being interrupted in his work, and thus his booth is nearly soundproof, only allowing enough sound through to prevent him being as cut off as he was during the B'wa Kell rebellion. Thus, when Holly had to cover her sensitive elven ears at Julius' next outburst, take is as no mean feat on his behalf.

"DON'T. CALL. ME. JULIUS!"


	3. Chapter 3

Unlike Artemis, whose death was kept quiet, Julius Root found coming back to life very difficult. He was constantly swarmed by paparazzi, reporters, and even ordinary citizens looking for anything from an interview to what the "other side" was like.

They quickly figured out three things. The first was that Julius hated this treatment, the second was that he was very good at disappearing, and the third was that if you went looking for him, there were no guarantees on your safety. After the third cameraman required healing, they stopped mobbing him for questions, and stuck to taking pictures of the resurrected elf from a distance.

Julius had many reasons to be irritable, the foremost being Trouble Kelp. He liked the elf, and in fact had molded him to be his successor, but now that plan had backfired. There was no point in there being two recon/retrieval commanders, and Trouble was currently in his seat.

Holly had tried offering him a post in Section 8. She and Foaly had taken over the running of the LEP special forces division after Wing Commander Vinyaya's death, and she could have given him any position he chose. He didn't like the cloak and dagger that went with the secretive department though, and had declined.

Which brings us to his current whereabouts: sitting in Trouble's office, smoking a fungal cigar.

Trouble did not like this.

"Would you please not smoke that in here?" He said, one hand at his temple while he looked over the datapads of paperwork before him. The foul smoke made his head hurt.

Root took several last puffs on the cigar before smothering it on the sole of his boot.

"I remember the days when a little smoke was no problem for someone in such a hard-won position such as _commander_." Root said, chuckling to himself.

"That's because the commander was the one smoking." Trouble turned on an air filter on his desk, only effective now that there was no new smoke being produced. "It took a whole year to get the smell of those things out of the carpet in here, I don't want to have to do it again."

These arguments were common in the week since Julius' return. He would come in, start into some old habit that he knew Trouble detested (or at least disliked), and continue to push his buttons until Trouble would get exasperated and send him to the Ops booth for more tests. Eventually, he reasoned, Kelp would be forced to find him something to do.

"Why don't you go and see what tests Foaly and Artemis have for you?" Trouble said, playing his part, "Come and see me when you're done."

This was not part of the normal exchange, and caught Root's interest. He knew, however, that Kelp was battle-hardened and would not give up what he had planned without extensive torture, and that took too much time. With a dismissive grunt, he got up and left the office.

Artemis had been coming up with test after test for him since his return. Apparently it was blowing off frustration at the tests that had been run on him after his own resurrection. If Julius had read some of the details of these tests, he wouldn't have been surprised at the scene in the Ops booth when he arrived.

Artemis and No. 1 were standing back to back in the center of the room, each surrounded by batteries. Not the simple fusion batteries used to power most of Foaly's creations, but powerful magical batteries used for fine-tuned controlled manipulation of magic.

No. 1 was charging them as fast as he could, red beams shooting forth into the batteries with matching sparks flying off from his hands and the contact point where the energy was absorbed. Root was not surprised by the imp or his magic, as the demon had run many of the tests on him so far. What surprised him was Artemis.

Artemis was doing much the same as No. 1, but with distinct differences. Thick golden ropes of light wound their way down his arms, off his fingers, and into the batteries. The sparks coming from the contact points were being controlled, redirected into nearby batteries to preserve energy. Root had never seen Artemis use magic and, having not read the files on his resurrection like Artemis asked (for comparison to his own experiences), did not know that he even had any. His yell of surprise ended the competition as both parties stopped their displays of power.

"What in Frond's name is going on?" He yelled, torn between anger and horror.

In the corner, Foaly was counting under his breath. "five, six, seven, eight . . . Artemis wins!" Foaly cradled one of the large batteries, looking ecstatic, "It would have taken months to do this back when I was only working with elven warlocks!"

No. 1 looked downcast at his loss, until Artemis put a hand on his shoulder. "It's okay my friend," he said, looking tired, "I may have been able to put out more, but unless I refill soon I'll be out, I don't get to keep going forever like you do. I still need the ritual."

Root had had enough of being left out of the conversation. "Someone want to tell me what the fireworks sprouting from mud freak over here are all about?" He said, looking pointedly at Foaly. The centaur jumped into the explanation.

"If you had bothered to read those files I sent you, you'd know." He said, earning a scathing look, "As a side effect of the cloning process, Artemis here gained the use of magic. Albeit in his own, unique way. He's got all the power of No. 1, more if he pushes hard enough. The downside being that he has to perform the ritual or find some way of replenishing the magic, instead of simply going to sleep like No. 1 here." As he spoke, Artemis walked over to one of the batteries and pulled a large portion of it's energy out, giving himself enough magic to last the month. When he was done, he took over for Foaly.

"I've got a high capacity it seems, allowing me to actually utilize the massive power without going dry every five seconds." He bounced a golden spark between his hands, "We're not sure if it's my humanity or the chrysalis that gives it its distinctive colour and behaviour though."

Curiosity sated, Root went through a series of magical tests and scans, making sure his own magic was working normally. They finished this off with an infusion from No. 1, which left the former commander torn between mild unease at the procedure, and the heady high of running hot. Done with his tests, he headed back to Trouble's office, pulling out a cigar as he went.

In the Ops booth, No. 1's communicator went off. Suddenly, he was very, very giddy.

"What're you worked up about?" Foaly asked, trying to look over the imp's shoulder.

"Qwan is letting me take the new warlocks on a field trip!" No. 1 began to babble on about the new demon warlocks he and Qwan had been training. He began to ramble about the different eras he could take them to when another alarm went off.

"And No. 5 would love to see the renaissance, he's a genius with time tunnels . . . what is that?" No. 1 looked up at the large screen Foaly was working with.

Foaly just looked on in abject horror. On the screen, the front steps of the plaza were being ripped out by some form of magical disruption. From the cracks crawled fairies. Not whole, living fairies, but corpses, animated with magic to move once more, defying the deathly injuries that had claimed their lives.

"That, No. 1" Artemis began, also transfixed, "Is very, very bad."


End file.
